A New Way to Free Up Freeway

Transportation officials Wednesday unveiled a major piece of their $2.1-billion effort to hasten traffic along the Santa Ana Freeway, the congested “Main Street” of Orange County’s highway system.

The new “transitway” is a 4 1/2-mile carpool lane that, beginning today, is expected to decrease commute times by as much as 15 minutes between two of the nation’s busiest freeway interchanges.

“We are very proud of this project,” Brent Felker, director of Caltrans’ Orange County district, said of the mammoth concrete roadway connecting the intersection of three freeways--the Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Orange--in central Orange County with the intersection of two others--the Santa Ana and Costa Mesa--in Tustin. “It gives a lot of choices to commuters.”

Chuck Smith, a member of the board of directors of the Orange County Transportation Authority, which funded the $172-million transitway project with both federal and local money, was equally enthusiastic.

“This is the cornerstone of the I-5 project,” he said. “It’s a very important piece of the overall transportation picture for Orange County.”

The transitway--the only county highway on which carpoolers are separated from other traffic by a concrete barrier--is the final part of the ambitious central portion of the Santa Ana Freeway widening project, a $579-million effort that included expanding the freeway from six to 12 lanes, building seven major over-crossings and underpasses and completely reconstructing the two interchanges.

Opportunities for exiting the transitway are limited, but this helps in keeping traffic flowing, authorities said. Vehicles with two or more occupants or motorcycles may use the transitway. The fine for unauthorized users is $271.

Most of that work, including the construction of a small portion of the transitway, had been completed in the last six months. Today’s opening of the new carpool lanes from the Tustin interchange to the three-freeway “Orange Crush” interchange, however, extends the project in a way that has been eagerly anticipated by area merchants who believe the increased traffic flow will mean more business.

The transitway will have the capacity to take 23,000 vehicles per day off other lanes of the Santa Ana Freeway, speeding them between the interchanges, especially at rush hour, officials said.

“We’re very excited,” said John Nicoletti, a spokesman for the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, which stages events attracting crowds of 15,000 and is north of the Orange Crush just off the Orange Freeway. “The opening of this transitway makes us extremely accessible and we look forward to a lot more fans.”

Tanya Thomas, general manager of MainPlace/Santa Ana mall, which is just south of the interchange, said the shopping center has experienced a 10% increase in average monthly sales since last December, when improvements along the Santa Ana Freeway began being completed.

“This is right in our backyard,” she said. “It means big business. We’re through the tunnel now and looking forward to moving ahead in a big way.”

To show their appreciation to visiting transportation officials, Thomas and her staff treated them and reporters covering Wednesday’s media tour of the new freeway feature to servings of “Orange Crush lite,” a cold drink named after the interchange.

“My commute is already 20 minutes shorter,” said the mall manager, a Laguna Beach resident, referring to the effects of the widening of the Santa Ana Freeway, completed earlier this year.

Because most work on the transitway was done without closing the freeway, Felker said, “it was comparable to performing heart surgery while the patient is running.”

“We believe the surgery was a success,” he said.

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Interchange for the Better

Orange County’s main freeway artery, the Santa Ana Freeway, takes on a new look today with the opening of its carpool- only “transitway” betweeb the Costa Mesa Freeway interchange and the “Orange Crush” interchange with the Garden Grove and Orange freeways. Included in the opening is a ramp that will allow carpool- lane access from the transitway to Santa Ana’s Main Street.

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Transitway Tape

* Length: 4.5 miles

* Width: 50 feet

* Height: 60 feet at highest point

* Concrete: 189,000 cubic yards.

* Steel: 13,600 tons

* Botts Dots: 84,000

* Daily load: 23,000 vehicles

Source: Caltrans